Morgan Stanley said to promote a top quant to MD in this year's promotions

Today is the day that Morgan Stanley announces who's been promoted to managing director (MD) at its investment bank. Unlike Goldman Sachs, which publishes its managing director list for all to see, Morgan Stanley keeps its MD list confidential - the bank declined to comment for this article.

Not everyone at Morgan Stanley knows who's been promoted yet - the bank's full list of new MDs is being circulated internally later today (or so we understand). In the meantime, however, there a few rumours flying around about who got tapped.

One of those on the list is understood to be James Spencer-Lavan, the head of Morgan Stanley's quantitative investment strategies structuring team in EMEA. Spencer-Lavan, who's worked at Morgan Stanley since 2010 after starting his banking career as a quant at Merrill Lynch, didn't respond to a request to comment. However, colleagues say he was one of the lucky few.

Others promoted in Morgan Stanley's EMEA equity derivatives business this year are understood to include Oliver Höldin, who was last spotted working for Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt, and Jenny Zupan.

We'll publish further names here as they become available. Morgan Stanley, which is said to have boosted its bonus pool for 2018, is due to announce its results for last year this Thursday.

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